Melvin gets back on board with Twitter

PHOENIX -- A's manager Bob Melvin was on Twitter last spring for all of a few days before deciding to delete his account after one too many annoying tweets.

"It aggravated me too much," Melvin said on Sunday, "but I have much more patience this year."

So he's giving the social media site another chance -- "Hey, look, I have to get with the times, too, right?" he said -- though he still plans on only using it to follow his players and a select group of media, along with his daughter, Alexi, and Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson.

So don't expect to see any 140-character thoughts from the A's manager, who doesn't even plan to publicize his handle.

"I'm not tweeting anything, just following, including you people," he said, smiling.

Melvin might be enticed to change his mind, however, if Arizona manager and good buddy Kirk Gibson influences him enough. Gibson, like Melvin, joined Twitter this spring and has tweeted twice.

"Until he gets out there in the double-digits," Melvin said, "then I'll hold back."

This means Melvin will be subject to seeing reporters recite his own words, and many of his players', whenever he reaches for his phone. But it's surprisingly not the media that gets to Melvin.

"It's more the players that annoy me than anything else," he said. "Some of the stuff, I don't want to see what they're doing."

Even though he intended to remain anonymous on the site, Melvin already had more than 100 Twitter followers just hours after it became known he had joined. With his identity exposed, he's now considering deleting his account once again and rejoining under a new name.

Jane Lee is a reporter for MLB.com. Read her blog, Major Lee-ague, and follow her on Twitter @JaneMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.